Of equal importance, however, is what not to take away from Indian Matchmaking. Don’t try to be someone else for any reason, but especially for the reason of finding love, and don’t let anyone tell you who to be or what you want. Abide by your own values, and don’t let anyone tell you who you’re supposed to be in order to find love. Be yourself, and joy will find you in some form or another. Your identity and your worth are non-negotiable, and they are your most cherished possessions that require your care. Don’t settle to settle down.

A contract is often referred to as "a meeting of the minds," "a bargained-for exchange," or "a mutual promise supported by consideration." Instead of getting bogged down in the legal-ese, it is important to first talk about why it is prudent to have a written service agreement.

In many ways, I found freedom during the pandemic, and that freedom has translated into growth for both my business and me. The pandemic has taken from millions their lives, their livelihoods, and their sense of stability in an ever-changing world. Most of us are ebbing and flowing with the tides of the pandemic and the news, but your approach to marketing yourself and your business does not have to swim with the tide. I'm not a marketing expert, but I do know that these simple steps have helped me grow my business at a time when I thought I would just be staying afloat.

My racism, seemingly quiet, is, in fact, the catalyst of a devastatingly painful reverberation, particularly when coupled with millions upon millions of other people who like me, fail to question their privilege. By accepting my privilege, I have volunteered for racism. By failing to challenge my own privilege, I have implicitly accepted the task to carry out the oppressive goals of a racist majority.

Happy Wednesday, powerful people! Last post, we discussed a few of the most popular ways of acquiring a physical space for your business - purchasing, leasing, or co-working. Today's post will focus on the nuts and bolts of a commercial real estate purchase, including a general, and highly simplified, overview of the process and what you need to know if you're thinking about buying commercial real estate to house your business.

Congrats, fellow boss lady! You’re ready to create a physical space for your business. Luckily, there are a variety of options available for new business owners, ranging from co-working to traditional leases to buying. This post is an introduction to the variety of options that are available and will kick off a series about taking up physical space that complements hustle and doing so in a way that protects you legally and financially. Without further ado, let us introduce the applicants.

What I can tell you is that renting a commercial space is nothing like renting an apartment or a home. Negotiating a lease for commercial space takes due diligence, business planning, budgeting, patience, and a willingness to walk away from a bad deal. For the purposes of this article, I want to give you a sense of what to expect when thinking about entering into a formal lease for your business. I do not mean a co-working space agreement or a sublease. When I say lease here, I mean a lease where your business is named as the tenant (or the "lessee"). You might personally sign a guaranty, which we will talk about more a bit later.

For me, as a woman of color, being "woke" is not a trend. Being woke started when I opened my brown eyes at birth, my dark brown eyes set inside of my brown face and my brown body at birth, and saw America for the first time. For me, and for countless others, woke-ness is not a hobby or a cause for me. It is existence. It is irrevocably a part of who I am. For a person of color, sometimes I feel like I’m keeping my tired eyeballs open to make sure I survive in a world full of misunderstandings, misrepresentations, missed kindnesses. To me, acting purposefully, with an aim toward social justice and promoting the normalization of diversity, is how I stay aware of the ways that American society treats different communities differently, how the external world tears down some while uplifting others, and how society often seeks to minimize the personhood of those termed as “Other.”

In a sincere effort to be viewed as a polite and a selfless individual that lives to care for and accommodate others, we forget that these characteristics are "sold to many of us as a defining feature of the good woman." As women, we are forever faced with the catch-22 conundrum of how to be “good women,” as defined by antiquated social norms, while being fierce in our business endeavors?

The cycle must be broken. Just look at successful women - the women that we envy and admire, like Madeline Albright, Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Lilly Singh, Mindy Kaling, Elaine Welteroth - these are just some of the women that broke free from the binds of traditional definitions of what makes a woman “good.” Does this mean that these women don't care about their families, are bad mothers and partners, or are somehow not good people? No. In fact, many of these women are visionaries, community advocates, and true exemplars of conquering for causes of positive consequence. If you dig deeper, the stories of these women show a pattern of bravely embracing the un-traditional.

An LLC is form of doing business, registered with the Secretary of State, that combines the tax advantage of pass-through tax treatment for income with the limited liability and flexible ownership structure. I know, I know, I've fallen into legal-ese again. Let's break this down:

A sole proprietorship, which I will refer to as a “sole prop,” is an unincorporated business, which means you didn’t file any paperwork with the secretary of state, and you don’t have a separate taxpayer ID number (akin to a social security number for a business). Any income that you make in carrying on the business is reported with your personal social security number. You don’t have an operating agreement or a shareholder agreement. You might use a “DBA” – a “doing business as” for marketing purposes, but it’s still you running the show and reporting the profits received.

But, the sad truth is that competence alone doesn’t magically bring you clients or open the doors to your dream job. Competence gets the job done, but it does not get you the job. What does? The ability to build lasting business relationships within a community that fits the person that you are right now, not the person that you think the world wants you to be. For me, I could not build sustainable business relationships for a long time - that is, until I learned how to honor my whole self whenever I walk into any networking space. I went from hiding in bathroom stalls to closing multi-million dollar deals that I generated from my network.

By hanging out with yourself, you’ll spend time learning about the world around you. Once you understand the world around you, only then can you choose how to enter it. Even if what you do is miles away from current events, you should still be aware of what’s going on. By contributing your craft to the world, whatever it may be, you are choosing to enter it, so you need to know the world receiving your craft.

You choose how to enter any space. Of course, your entry may require navigating unfamiliar territory, but you can always control you. You know you, and you can teach people how to handle that which you know the best - you. If someone has a problem with it, that’s their problem. Repeat after me - that’s THEIR problem.

Not sure if you’re in the right space? Trust your gut. If you want to leave after 15 minutes because you want to go home and binge on your new Netflix obsession, make yourself stick it out, but if you leave because you’re surrounded by people with whom you share no cause, no profession or passion, then get the F out of there and go do something better with your night. Stop wasting your value in spaces that don’t coincide with your values. Your time is valuable and limited. Make sure you make intentional and self-aware choices about the spaces you seek business, and be open to organic connections.

Question: How do you deal with imposter syndrome?

Whenever I feel that misplaced feeling that I am somehow not meant to be in a professional space, I ask myself one simple question: "What would a straight white man do?" That question usually turns my panic into power nearly instantaneously. I mean, let’s be honest - when did you last witness a straight white male last suffer from imposter syndrome? Be honest.

15 years later, I am finally writing this story, albeit in brief, because so many people I know suffer quietly from depression, so many strong, successful people that I know have confessed to me their daily struggles with depression, with managing their pain, their grief, their feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness. I am writing this story to you, my friends, so you know that you are not alone. I am with you. So many of us are with you. Your pain may be silent, but you do not have to bear it alone.

Life, as we see now, will throw you many curveballs. Due to our finite nature as individual human beings, we each individually live our own lives. We might intertwine with our family, our friends, our pets, others in our community, but…we are each destined to live and die our own individual lives….Yes, everything is scary and tentative right now. There's a ton of information coming at us at rapid speed, and we are confronting a situation of first impression for many of us. You cannot control the external world, but you can control yourself. Take advantage of this alone time to invest in learning about yourself, which is an investment with a great ROI. The only rule is that being bored is not an option.

So often we derive our personal value by looking to the external - our professional identities, our community involvements, and our personal relationships; but, what if we based individual value on the value of the whole person? Shouldn’t your professional identity reflect who you are as a whole person, including you are outside of work, such as what hobbies and interests you enjoy, what makes you tick, what you read, and what inspires you? To me, those things matter when I meet someone, regardless if professional or personal. A professional who tells me only about what they do is informative…and boring, and not someone with whom I’m likely to develop a business relationship.

If you’ve been planning for a graduation in May 2020, whether you’re an 8th grader, a high schooler, an undergrad, or a grad student, you’re probably upset, rightfully so. In comparison to the scope of loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, you have probably been shamed for being upset about something like a graduation ceremony. I’m here to tell you that 1) I know how you feel; 2) the loss of your senior spring is a real loss that should be mourned and grieved, like any loss; and, 3) there is good news, though it doesn’t supersede the loss of this special time for you.